One on One | All stories

Julek Neumann is currently appearing at Prague’s Divadlo Ypsilon in a Mark Twain play which he himself translated into Czech. The new production marks his return to the theatre’s stage after a gap of nearly two and a half decades. In between he lived in Vienna and then London, where he worked for the Czech section of the BBC World Service during what was a period of change. When I met Julek Neumann in a café in Dejvice the other evening he first told me a little about his family background.

In this week's One on One, our guest is Jiří Stanislav, a politician and actor who spent half of his life abroad in Canada and the UK. Most recently he appeared in the film Paradise Found in 2003 with Keifer Sutherland and Nastassja Kinsky. But Jiří Stanislav is a man of many trades. He has long been interested in politics, and a few years ago he became the head of a Czech political party. He is now also the mayor of a small community in Moravia. I started by asking Jiří Stanislav, what was more enjoyable – acting or politics.

Today’s guest on One on One is Jiri Dedecek – singer, political activist, Czech PEN club president, and translator. Mr Dedecek is perhaps best known for his translations from Russian and French into Czech. One of his most recent projects was translating the songs of Jacques Brel and Vladimir Vysockij for the ballet ‘Solo for Three’, which premiered at the National Theatre in Prague in May of this year. I caught up with Jiri Dedecek in his expansive office above the National Library, in Prague’s Clementinum.

While many of us are currently running around trying to buy presents, our guest today is busy selling them. But Linda Vavrikova’s company Allegria offers an unusual range of gifts: rather than tangible objects, they sell experiences. They can organise everything from a day spent on the back of a bin lorry to skiing pulled by horses to all kinds of unusual spa treatments. And the business has been a big hit since it was started three years ago: last year Linda Vavrikova, who is 25, was named Czech Businessperson of the Year.

Our guest for One on One this week is Scottish artist Stewart Kenneth Moore who has been living in the Czech Republic since 1994. In that time, he has built up a reputation as one of the city’s most capable artists and draughtsmen, who is particularly well respected for the portraits he has done of many members of the city’s business community. Besides painting, Stewart also has a keen interest in graphic design and his illustrations have been used by a number of publications, including Esquire and Elle Magazine.

Our guest in this week’s edition of One on One is Pislner Urquell’s CEO Mike Short (61). Mr Short, originally a nuclear engineer, joined the South African beer producer SAB Miller in 1990 after a career stretching from the aerospace division of Rolls-Royce to the submarine service of the Royal Navy. Before becoming the head of the top Czech beer producer in 2005, Mr Short was the head of a brewery in Hungary, another member of the SAB Miller group. Is the submarine service a good starting point for a career in the beer making industry? That was

Our guest for One on One this week is Pavel Maurer, who is arguably the Czech Republic’s best known and most influential gourmet. Besides establishing the highly successful Prague Food Festival, which every year gives people a chance to sample the fare of the Czech capital’s best restaurants for rock-bottom prices, Pavel Maurer is also the man behind the highly respected Grand Restaurant guide.

Roman Zuzuk is a Ukrainian born artist who runs a gallery with his brother Miroslav in Prague's Mala Strana. Roman studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kiev, and came to Prague in 1991 to begin painting professionally. His work features colourful dreamscapes and illogical scenarios, musical themes and interaction between humans and animals. Roman lived in Prague until January 2000 and now resides in Toronto, Canada. He comes back here every year to visit the city, and his gallery. That's where I caught up with him a few days ago.

From his office in the Prague district of Zizkov, Petr Litos runs a company making mobile phone games for both the Czech and international markets. In fact, his firm Nostromo successfully exports mobile entertainment to the whole of central and eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Scandinavia and Turkey (and in some cases the whole world). When we met last week, I first asked Petr to name some of the big international franchises his 30-strong team have worked with.

Last week the best-known living Czech author, Milan Kundera, was awarded the State Prize for Literature. The award sparked plenty of debate about the 78-year-old writer, who's lived in France since the 1970s and rarely returns to his homeland; he was not present to collect the award, citing ill health. It was given for the Czech edition of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which was published in French in 1984 but not published in Czech - officially - until last year. Kundera's three most recent novels - published in French and translated into